In Los Angeles, there is a Jewish cafe/restaurant called Canters which is a staple in old Hollywood. It’s full of screenwriters in big white trainers and khaki shorts writing C-list scripts about zombies (there’s a huge market for zombie films in LA). It’s bright and full of booths and the staff are older than most of the buildings.

The Italian Foodhall doesn’t have the history and only a fraction of the atmosphere of Canters but a fraction all the same. Italian rather than Jewish, the deli has shelves stacked high with all that lovely Italian confectionery in amazing packaging, biscotti, amoretti biscuits, dark chocolate, marzipan sweets etc… The restaurant has high-backed red leather booths providing ample privacy and space, something you just don’t find in London since real estate prices force proprietors to pack in the customers. The food is that kind of home-cooked variety you see on American sitcoms and adverts, bruschetta piled high and bowls of olives and buttery ciabatta. The staff look Italian but that’s about it.
26 The Broadway, Crouch End, London, N8 9DE
020 83476065‎

http://www.spiazzo.co.uk

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Rochelle School House, Arnold Circus, London, E2 7ES
020 77295677
Monday – Friday 9.30am-4pm Lunch 12pm-3pm Closed evenings, weekends and bank holidays

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Ok so I take it back, Brixton does have a few places of merit other than the Ritzy and Rosie’s Café, and one would be Franco Manca. A little pizza place only open for lunch in Brixton Market, it looks a bit like a posh fish and chip shop with a giant mosaic pizza oven imported from Naples, the great city of pizza itself. There are a few wooden benches, all very tasteful and serves the most amazing authentic Sicilian pizza in the city. It totally doesn’t fit in with its surroundings as you could easily miss it amongst the exotic Afro-Caribbean food stores selling all kinds of tropical fish, bootleg reggae tapes and piles of yams and plantain. For such a modest and understated little place, a lot of energy has gone into the process of making world class pizza, starting with the cheese maker they flew in from Sorrento to train their supplier in the art of mozzarella making. The sourdough base, made with organic Italian flour, is naturally leavened with wild yeast and left to rise for a minimum of 20 hours before being baked. The select menu of six different pizzas are cooked at around 500 deg C (yes 500) for a mere 2 minutes to ensure the flavour is locked in and the base is perfectly crisped without drying out. There aren’t many reasons to venture this far south of the river but this is one of them.

http://francomanca.co.uk/

4, Market Row, Electric Lane, Brixton, London. SW9 8LD.
020 7738 3021
Monday-Saturday 12pm-5pm

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So much more than just a cheese shop although what a cheese shop it is. It only has one long large wooden communal table as every other spare inch is taken up by all kinds of delicious food. They serve everything from (proper) wine to tea and coffee. It’s one of the places where you wonder what they do with all the food at the end of the day as every surface is covered with huge dishes of Halloumi, sun blushed tomatoes with toasted pine nuts, bruschetta piled high with roasted vegetables, bowls of marinated olives, pies, cakes and tortes of every kind and tiers of multi-coloured iced cupcakes and so on. Lunch was goat’s cheese and rocket on whole wheat, a slice of cherry pie and a cup of coffee, damn good food! If you ever get up this way that pie is worth a stop.

http://www.lafromagerie.co.uk/

2-6 Moxon Street, Marylebone, London, W1U 4EW
020 7935 0341
Monday – Friday 8am-6.30pm Saturday 9am-7pm Sunday 10am-6pm

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Located in people-watching heaven since it’s frequented by people who dress like a piece of coloured perspex with hair on loan from the V&A, the Story Deli is East London’s answer to great pizza. It has one main communal table with a few more scattered around and outside, plus lots of oxidised mirrors which I love ever since a creepy guy told me that he loved staring in them as it made him think of all the ghosts that had stared in them before. Enormous bowls of salad are displayed along the counters and large plates of every kind of amazing thin base pizza of the proscuitto and rocket variety. It’s part of Truman Brewery so like all the other places there it’s ultra cool, with lots of cool people in cool clothes, looking cool in cool places eating cool food.

3 Dray Walk, The Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London, E1 6QL
020 7247 3137
Monday – Sunday 12pm-10pm

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Beyond the gridlock of baby buggies and over-gentrification, Stoke Newington Church Street has many positive points, one in particular being the Blue Legume. It’s comforting to think that if it weren’t for the bourgeoisie element of this area a place like this probably wouldn’t be here. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love this place. Their menu consists of all kinds of breakfasts from British to Mediterranean, and lunch is anything from bespoke sandwiches to elaborate salads. I personally like to come here for a coffee and a slice of lemon cheesecake, (something that wouldn’t cross my mind to order anywhere else). Don’t be put off by its slightly ethnic hippy appearance – at least it has character and isn’t full of health food freaks (just media types who work freelance and have moved to Stoke Newington as they are sick of hauling the baby buggy up the stairs). The veranda at the back makes a nice addition in the summer.

101 Stoke Newington Church Street, London, N16 0UD
020 7923 1303
Monday – Saturday 9.30am-11pm Sunday 9.30am-6.30pm

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Upper Street may have a lot of restaurants but good ones it does not. Ottolenghi however is excellent and has the most delicious selection of cakes, pies and other desserts. The windows are piled high with colourful meringues (which I have never seen anyone actually eat), cupcakes and little custard tarts. They have all kinds of food including proper meals and salads so it is good for lunch or dinner but it is the desserts I come for, particularly the apple cake. The interior is sleek and white, perhaps lacking in comfort but with an abundance of sophistication. There are various branches throughout the city but unless you want take-away, the flagship is the one to come to.

http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/

287 Upper Street, London, N1 2TZ
020 7288 1454
Monday – Saturday 8am-11pm Sunday 9am-7pm

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Without a doubt worthy of the term ‘institution’ Sweetings has been around since before (and only just surviving) World War II, barely changing a thing since its opening in 1889. Packed wall to wall with ex-public school, pinstriped-suit wearing city boys of the old school variety, there isn’t a woman in sight. Sweetings harks back to the days when city bankers would take long alcohol-fueled lunches talking about how much money they had made and how much money they were going to make. Fish is what they serve and they don’t serve coffee. The brown bread and butter, steamed syrup sponge and baked jam roll qualify as upmarket school food, not something many restaurants want to boast but I can assure you it’s excellent. Our waiter, surely not a day under 80 years old only adds to the eccentric atmosphere making it well worth the visit.

39 Queen Victoria Street, London, EC4N 4SF

020 72483062

Monday – Friday 11:30am-3pm

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The staff are the clincher for me as they are so sweet and small and Swedish. It’s a quirky concept as the main thing on offer is obviously hummus but there is plenty to fill up on once you add pita bread, moutabel, perhaps some falafel or tabouleh, a cup or two of fresh mint tea, ginger lemonade or hot spiced apple juice and not to forget the date honey Malabi for dessert which is delicious. It’s great for a quick lunch or a snack rather than as a place to linger – it’s bright and airy with long canteen style benches but still stylish and smart. The friendly staff who often throw in something for free make it a great place to come and grab something healthy but filling, and the menu caters to people with every intolerance from gluten to sugar.

http://www.hbros.co.uk/

88 Wardour Street, London W1F 0TJ
020 7734 1311
Sunday – Wednesday 12pm – 10pm Thursday – Saturday 12pm – 11pm

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